What's Happening in Senior Softball

COLUMBUS LXV went into the 2018 SPA 65 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP at DALTON, GEORGIA Sept 6-9 with one thing in mind...win it for HENRY!!

HENRY SOLIC had been the manager and third basemen for COLUMBUS LXV and unfortunately passed away earlier this year.

“HENRY meant a lot to our team and we all miss him greatly,” COLUMBUS LXV Manager-of-The-Year PHIL DUNLAP said. “We remember HENRY before every tournament game and spread his ashes at third base after the tournament.”

“I know he was watching and rooting for us at DALTON,” DUNLAP said. “I know he is just as excited at winning the WORLD TITLE as we are.”

If SOLIC was watching from above, he had some anxious moments as his teammates won nine games in the tournament but five were by one run in the bottom of the seventh.

“We were lucky and won the toss in all five games, so I took last bats,” DUNLAP said.

They also had to come out of the loser’s bracket to win it.

In the only breather in the tournament COLUMBUS won the first bracket game 17-2 over THE FIRM. That was followed by a 25-24 win over SIDELINE BULL MOOSE before losing 14-17 to the DAYTON LEGENDS.

The CHAMPS started their journey out of the loser’s bracket with an 18-17 over RPR and forced the “IF” game beating DAYTON 15-14. The finale was more of the same with COLUMBUS rallying in the bottom of the seventh for the 18-17 tournament title.

“We were kind of lucky winning both the coin flip and then the game,” DUNLAP said.” We just played really, really well. We are not a soon-to-be MAJOR team, we didn’t win a lot of games this year. We just got really lucky in this one.”

COLUMBUS’S pool wins were over INDY FOG (20-14) and SIDELINE BULL MOOSE (10-8), They lost to SCRAP IRON MILE HIGH (10-11). Counting pool games DAYTON LEGENDS had won five in a row before losing the final two to COLUMBUS.

JACK isn’t the only GIANT SLAYER, you can add CAROLINA FIVE-O to the list. CAROLINA earned the recognition by not only winning the 2018 SPA 50 WORLDS at DALTON, GEORGIA’S HERITAGE PARK but knocking off the TENNESSEE COMETS to do it.

The COMETS came into the tournament already having won SPA TOURNAMENTS at PLAYERS/AWARDS EXPRESS; PEACH STATE, SOUTHERN SPRING NATIONALS and the MID SOUTH NIT and won their first two pool games and three bracket games at DALTON.

CAROLINA FIVE O slowed down the COMETS with a 19-10 victory in the tournament’s winner’s bracket finals. CAROLINA reached the finals with wins over BLACKBURN TRUCKING (23-7), WDMS (22-21) and BRICKYARD SOFTBALL (20-17).

TENNESSEE fell into the loser’s bracket and promptly downed CANADA’S LAKESHORE CONTRACTING 21-15 to earn another shot at CAROLINA.

This time the COMETS came out on top 12-11 to set up the “IF” game. CAROLINA FIVE-O came out charging winning 20-15 for the 2018 SPA 50 AAA WORLD TITLE.

CAROLINA finished 7-1 having won two games ( DIVERSIFIED MACHINE 17-11 and MAJOR LEAGUE SRS 19-14) in pool play.

ONE UNDER CRAFT BEERS AND EATS ran the table Sept 7-9 at DALTON, GEORGIA’S HERITAGE PARK to win the 2018 SPA 55 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP.

The CHAMPS went 2-0 in pool and 3-0 in bracket for a perfect 5-0 record.

It wasn’t a total cake walk because ONE UNDER had to edge CPOA 27-26 in the finals to wrap up the crown. They started bracket play beating CPOA 20 -12 and MARYLAND COUGARS 21-10 to set up the title game with CPOA.

In pool play they beat DARRELL HARRIS & ASSOCIATES (30-17) and JAMES R.SMITH (14-12).

CPOA gave it a good try opening with a 20-14 over DARRELL HARRIS but lost to ONE UNDER 12-20 in their

next game. They earned their way to the title game with loser bracket wins over DARRELL HARRIS 20-14 and 21-16 over MARYLAND COUGARS.

The BIRD was not the word at the 9/9-9/11 SPA 2018 75 AAA WORLD SERIES at DALTON, GEORGIA’S HERITAGE PARK.

The INDIANAPOLIS CLASSICS downed the SENIOR RED BIRDS two out of three times in the double-elimination bracket competition to win the WORLD SERIES TITLE.

The CLASSICS beat the BIRDS 23-19 in their first encounter in bracket play sending the winged wonders to the loser’s bracket. The BIRDS fought their way out of the loser’s bracket beating the TEXAS LEGENDS (9-7) to get another shot at INDIANAPOLIS.

This time the BIRDS won (10-9) to set up an “IF” game but the CLASSICS came back to win 9-5 in the finals.

For the tournament the two teams (CLASSICS and REDBIRDS) were 2-and-2 against each other since the BIRDS edged the CLASSICS 15-14 in pool play which making the REDBIRDS 3-0 and the number one seed. In the end all it earned them was the runner-up spot in the 75 AAA 2018 SPA WORLDS SERIES TOURNAMENT.

Ironically it was a repeat of the SPA JIM WELCH CLASSIC in TROY, ILL when the CLASSICS beat the SENIOR REDBIRDS twice to win that tournament. For the year the CLASSICS won three SPA TITLES the WORLD SERIES, JIM WELCH and THEE BUCKEYE CLASSIC. They also finished second in the WORLDS in COLUMBUS to PRO HEALTH.

The other two teams in the 75 WORLD SERIES were TEXAS LEGENDS and FLORIDA’S PREMIUM SEATS.

The CANTERBURY CRUISERS added their second SPA 2018 75 MAJOR WORLDS to their resume winning the SPA 75 MAJOR WORLD SERIES at DALTON, GEORGIA’S HERITAGE PARK September 9-11.

In August they won the SPA 2018 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP played at COLUMBUS, OHIO’S BERLINER PARK.

It only took two bracket games to add their second title in DALTON. They knocked off SE LEFTOVERS 24-9 in the first game and HILL CONTRACTING 21-6 in the championship battle.

HILL made it to the finals beating SE LEFTOVERS 17-6.

CANTERBURY wasn’t perfect in the tournament losing to 75AAA WORLD SERIES winner INDIANA CLASSICS 14-7 in pool play. However, they did win their other pool games over two other 75 AAA teams PREMIUM SEATS (21-7) and SR REDBIRDS (29-8).

SUPERIOR SR SOFTBALL and VENOM used five head-to-head games to decide the 2018 SPA MAJOR PLUS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CROWN played Sept 14-16 at DALTON, GEORGIA’S HERITAGE PARK

When the smoke cleared SUPERIOR SENIOR SOFTBALL had the 3-2 edge winning the final game 28-13.

Not only were the two teams close on wins 3-2 but VENOM only had a 83-82 edge in runs scored for and against.

SSS won a close first game 25-24 and the second game 16-4 before VENOM fought back winning 25-5 and 17-7 to force the deciding contest.

Some interesting facts about the two teams SSS had four impact players on their roster C. BALLARD JR, DON CLATTERBOUGH, CHARLES CREGAR and JOHN DAVIDE while VENOM had only two DAVE CLOVER and TOLS MIHAILOFF.

The SSS 15-man roster had players from six states (VA 5, MD 4, NC 3, NJ, TN, NY) while VENOM’S 11-man contingent had 10 from FLORIDA and one from KENTUCKY.